Thinkware App Walkthrough (Dashcam Viewer)

NOTE: the F770 needs to have Parking Mode enabled which can be found in the Recording Settings. Make sure that "Motion Detection" is enabled.

We have built app walkthroughs for the BlackVue, BlackVue C and BlackSys apps, but now that we’re carrying Thinkware units as well, we felt that we should help our customers by providing a guide to using the Thinkware app too.

Thinkware's WiFi app is available for iOS and Android devices and allows the user to access videos on the card/dual save as well as tweak various settings. This guide will outline the different settings and menu options of the app. We've also made a YouTube video walkthrough of the app here:

Linking up

The first step in using the app would be to connect your smartphone with your unit. To do this, you will need to press the WiFi button on the Thinkware unit’s body. On the F750 this is found next to the power button. Once the WiFi has been activated, you will need to connect to it’s WiFi signal "Thinkware_**********"" with your phone.

After pressing down the button, the WiFi signal from the unit will only stay active for around 2 minutes if there isn’t any activity, so be sure to connect your phone and unit as soon as you activate it. When you’re connecting for the first time, the unit will ask you to fill in a password, which should be: “123456789”. When your unit is connected to your phone, the unit will not record video, and the driving safety systems such as lane departure will be disabled as well.

Video Listings

The many file lists in the side menu are the categories for the types of videos that the Thinkware device can record. "Continuous" stores anything that can be considered a normal commute, "Incident Continuous" is for videos where an incident occur in them during said commute. "Motion Detection" stores the videos that occur when parking mode is active while "Incident Parking" videos are triggered when your unit detects sudden motion of the vehicle itself, while in parking mode. In other units with WiFi apps the four categories would be known as Normal, Event, Parking and Parking Event respectively.

The download times for streaming the videos and saving them to your phone are slightly faster on the Thinkware when compared to the BlackVue DR650GW-2CH, and about on par when compared with the BlackSys CH-100B, if not a tiny bit faster. Once a video has been downloaded once, it will be marked in the listing with a blue highlight surrounding it, to make it easier to discern which ones have already been saved.

Video Listings

The many file lists in the side menu are the categories for the types of videos that the Thinkware device can record. "Continuous" stores anything that can be considered a normal commute, "Incident Continuous" is for videos where an incident occur in them during said commute. "Motion Detection" stores the videos that occur when parking mode is active while "Incident Parking" videos are triggered when your unit detects sudden motion of the vehicle itself, while in parking mode. In other units with WiFi apps the four categories would be known as Normal, Event, Parking and Parking Event respectively.

The download times for streaming the videos and saving them to your phone are slightly faster on the Thinkware when compared to the BlackVue DR650GW-2CH, and about on par when compared with the BlackSys CH-100B, if not a tiny bit faster. Once a video has been downloaded once, it will be marked in the listing with a blue highlight surrounding it, to make it easier to discern which ones have already been saved.

Live View and Videos Downloaded would be very self-explanatory titles, but the Live View on the Thinkware works quite differently than the Live view function on other units. With the Thinkware units, the Live view is meant to only be used to adjust the positioning of the dashcam. This is why there is a leveling overlay on the live view, and also why it is quite worse in quality when compared to the recorded video.

Some Android users will need to download another app in order to be able to view videos live from the Thinkware App. While the app itself isn't responsive, the orientation of the app will automatically change to landscape mode whenever a video is being watched. The live feed will show speed, but speed will not be visible on the recorded videos unless they're viewed on the PC viewer program (Mac version also available)

The Settings

Now that we’ve gone over the recordings and the way that they’re organized, we can take a look at the settings! There are many settings to choose from, with more options & presets to choose from than what is offered from the BlackVue app.

Memory Card Settings

In Memory Card Settings, there are 3 different types of settings to go into: Partition settings, Memory Card Format, and Video Overwrite settings. In Partition settings you will be able to choose the way that the videos are divided on your unit, and how much space each type of video is allowed to have. We find that Partition Type C works best for those who are looking to get the most for Parking mode recordings. Memory Card Format allows you to format your SD card in your unit, through the app. This will erase all of the videos on your SD card so be sure to save any videos that you would like to before formatting! Video Overwrite Settings will allow you to decide which types of videos will have loop recording, and which will not.

Dual Save Settings

Dual Save is another great feature that Thinkware offers. What it is, is an internal storage for event videos to help save them in the event that you lose the SD card or it accidentally gets overwritten. The Incident Continuous and Incident Parking videos are the types that are saved in the Dual Save settings. The Dual Save videos tab takes you to the listing of videos. The other two options allow you to save the videos onto the memory card in the unit, or to clear the listing of videos.

Dashcam Settings

The Dashcam settings group contain the most options for customizing your dashcam. If you wanted to, you could tap on the arrow going in a circle in the top right corner. This button is a refresh button and will reset your Dashcam to the factory settings.

Camera Settings

The settings within Camera Settings affect the way the recordings appear. The brightness is adjustable for front and rear cameras individually, and the Wide Dynamic Range affects the amount of details that can be captured. Without Wide Dynamic Range, details in areas that are too bright or too dark would be lost and these details could have been important ones, such as the license plate number. However, turning off WDR would save quite a bit of space on the SD card, so its ultimately up to you, the customer.

Recording Settings

The Recording Settings allow you to adjust when recordings are triggered to be saved. You can adjust the G-sensor sensitivity levels; if parking mode activates; and the intricacies of how the parking mode feature functions. Such settings include, the sensitivity of the parking mode g-sensor, the motion detection sensitivity, and when to cut your unit off from power. The Thinkware units come with the ability to provide parking mode for 12v vehicles and 24v vehicles making it quite versatile.

Road Safety Settings

The Road Safety settings allow you to customize how the bonus driving protection features function. In the Road Safety settings, you’ll be able to adjust which ones are active, and what would trigger them. Safety camera alert is a red light camera notification system, so it will notify you if you are coming up to a red light camera. LDWS is a Lane Departure warning system, which lets you know when you’re leaving the lane you’re in while FCWS is a Forward Collision Warning System that notifies you if you are going too fast or are too close to the car in front of you.

System Settings

The system settings will allow you to customize the way your unit interacts with you. You can change its language to a variety of choices from English, to French, to Spanish, to Portuguese and even Mandarin. Other settings you can change are the Time, and speed that is recorded on your videos, and the way that the Security LED lights up. For the most discreet setup, we would disable the security LED, though it was a nice touch to add the different patterns for the LEDs.

Wifi Settings

WiFi Settings will allow you to change the name of the WiFi signal and the password that’s used to access it. Preferably we would keep the password and signal name with the default names. Keep in mind that if you do change these settings, you will have to sign onto the WiFi network again. If you change the signal name, you would have to search for the signal and sign onto it again as usual. If you change the password, then you would need to “forget” the previous connection, as phones save the signal/password combinations, and so if you try to connect to the signal after changing the password, it’ll just say that you have the wrong password or can’t connect. Once the original connection is forgotten, you can reconnect to the signal and it will ask for you to put in a password. Now you can enter the new password and connect to your unit once more.

We've pretty much covered the whole Thinkware app, the last bits being the non-configurable bits of information for your unit, the app itself, and the GPS record log (which can be reset). Other than the GPS that can be reset, these sections only provide you with information on the app & unit and can be left alone. Now that you're familiar with how to operate your Thinkware Dashcam, you are all set install it, and begin protecting your vehicle!